Trump says Kim Jong Un risks los­ing ‘ev­ery­thing’

North Korea claims ma­jor test

WASH­ING­TON/SEOUL — U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump said Sun­day that North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un risks los­ing “ev­ery­thing” if he re­sumes hos­til­ity and his coun­try must de­nu­cle­arize, af­ter the North said it had car­ried out a “suc­cess­ful test of great sig­nif­i­cance.”

“Kim Jong Un is too smart and has far too much to lose, ev­ery­thing ac­tu­ally, if he acts in a hos­tile way. He signed a strong De­nu­cle­ariza­tion Agree­ment with me in Sin­ga­pore,” Trump said on Twit­ter, re­fer­ring to his first sum­mit with Kim in Sin­ga­pore in 2018.

“He does not want to void his spe­cial re­la­tion­ship with the Pres­i­dent of the United States or in­ter­fere with the U.S. Pres­i­den­tial Elec­tion in Novem­ber,” he said.

North Korea’s state me­dia KCNA re­ported ear­lier on Sun­day that it had car­ried out a “very im­por­tant” test at its So­hae satel­lite launch site, a rocket-test­ing ground that U.S. of­fi­cials once said North Korea had promised to close.

The re­ported test comes ahead of a year-end dead­line North Korea has im­posed for the United States to drop its in­sis­tence on uni­lat­eral de­nu­cle­ariza­tion. Py­ongyang has warned it could take a “new path” amid the stalled talks with the United States.

“North Korea, un­der the lead­er­ship of Kim Jong Un, has tremen­dous eco­nomic po­ten­tial, but it must de­nu­cle­arize as promised,” Trump said on Twit­ter.